Proposals to build a wood gasification plant in Cobham have been rejected by Surrey County Council’s planning committee.
SAS Waste planned to build a 2.5MW CHP gasification plant that would have converted waste wood into energy.
It would have treated 30,000 tonnes per year of wood waste.
However, planning officers at Surrey County Council recommended that the development should be refused as the proposal was to build the facility on green belt land.
In the planning document outlining the recommendation to refuse the application, it said: “The applicant has failed to demonstrate factors which either alone or in combination demonstrate ‘very special circumstances’ which clearly outweigh the harm to the Green Belt by virtue of the inappropriate nature of the development, harm to openness and other harm.”
SAS Waste has said it intends to investigate making an appeal against the decision.
